RPGs “R” A-OK
For all three of you who read my game reviews on this site, you might have been wondering where I’ve been this past week and a half or so. Since it’s the holiday rush time for new game releases, it may seem kind of weird that over the past week and a half, I haven’t had many new games to review here. I guess it’s the calm before the storm. So I took the time to just play some of the games I’ve gotten and just enjoy them. Sometimes you just have to play games for fun through gamers’ eyes, not reviewers’ eyes. So I thought I’d fill you all in on what I’ve been playing lately, and oddly enough, they’re all RPGs.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
This is the third in the Mario & Luigi RPG series that started out on the GBA. The action-packed turn-based battles have you controlling Mario with the A button and Luigi with the B button and you must time your button presses to attack and defend. The gimmick in this game is that you get to control their long-time nemesis Bowser, as he has unwittingly sucked Mario and Luigi inside him! Through most of the game, you tromp around the top-down overworld as Bowser while Mario and Luigi explore his insides in 2-D platformey fashion. Sometimes Mario & Luigi will have to aid Bowser by helping him digest food in an eating contest, or stimulating his muscles for tug o’ war, among other things. At climaxes in the story, Bowser grows huge and you must tilt the DS on its side for Godzilla-like Bowser boss battles!
Most of the side characters in Mario games have gotten their own starring roles in games as well. Luigi got Luigi’s Mansion, the princess got Super Princess Peach, heck, even Toad got his own puzzle game with Wario’s Woods. Since you control Bowser through most of the game in the newest Mario & Luigi title, I guess you could say this is his starring role, finally.
Bowser’s Inside Story is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. But like all Mario games, this one is highly recommended for kids. Reading skill is a must, as everything is text based, but the script is very clever and well-written. Goals are always clear and out of the three in the series, this one is the most forgiving. It’s kind of stretching things a bit, but I think the Mario & Luigi games also have a good message to siblings about helping each other out and getting along, just like Mario and Luigi do.
Speaking of brothers, my little brother Jeff just ADORED Bowser when he was a very young tyke, and always played as him in the Mario Kart games and whatnot. One of the games that came out when Jeff was little was Super Mario RPG on the SNES, and he always asked for me to play “Mario PG.” (that’s what he called it) One time we went to the beach and Jeff made a sand castle and stuck one his toy swords in the top (a reference to the storyline in Mario RPG). When his mom came along and complimented him on his nice sand castle, he blurted out, “That’s not a sand castle, that’s BOWSER’S CASTLE!!!”
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
I’ve been playing this off and on over the past few months. It’s a WiiWare title that’s a port of a cell phone game in Japan, and it’s a direct sequel to the original Final Fantasy 4. I’m on the last chapter now. Why is it that I couldn’t care less about most of today’s modern 3-D RPGs, but give me a classic styled 16-bit RPG and I’ll get hooked? The After Years certainly has its share of problems: you’re exploring a lot of the same locations, fighting the same enemies, etc. So I really couldn’t recommend this game to everyone, just SUPER HUGE FF4 fans like me. But I’m still enjoying it anyway. I’m just glad that Square Enix gave us the opportunity to play this game, that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to try.
Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Speaking of FF, I’m still playing this crossover fighting game on the PSP. I wrote about this game a while back and I’m still loving it. It’s so robust and there are tons of things you can do. If you have a PSP and enjoy Final Fantasy, you’ll definitely want to pick this one up if you haven’t already. It’s one of the best PSP games out there.
Upcoming Fun
And that’s what I’ve been playing lately. Except now I’ve got a few games to review alongside that, so expect to see some more reviews from me soon! One is a well-made Wizard of Oz game on the DS that’s also an RPG! Yeah, I know, weird, huh? And I’m also going to review the second season of Sam & Max on Xbox LIVE, so look for those reviews soon!
And finally, one upcoming PSP game that I’m really looking forward to is a 16-bit styled action RPG game that you play in 30 second increments! Yeah, you heard right! And it’s called Half-Minute Hero! There are a couple of demos you can download at the PlayStation Store on your PSP, and I encourage you to check them out. It’s a blast.
Oh yeah, I’m also looking forward to A Boy and His Blob for Wii. Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Let me know in the comments section what games you’re playing or looking forward to. –Cary
October 15th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
It’s a lot more than three Cary.
Seriously, check out some much bigger commercial sites like Salon.com and more and you’ll see plenty of 0 comments. People generally don’t post unless they’re part of a community (most game sites attracting teen to young adults) or controversial.
Also, chew on this. Entertainment Weekly has a circulation of over 1million readers per week. I’ve read they get roughly 100 mails per issue. Unless they do something people want to argue about. Given those numbers – and our much lower traffic, lack of controversy, and lack of a solid community trying to one-up each other post by post…. we’re a lot more popular than we look.
October 16th, 2009 at 1:41 am
Oh don’t worry. I was just joking in that first sentence anyway. 🙂 –Cary
October 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am
🙂 I know.
It’s something that crosses my mind now and then too. I’d love to hear more from the community but have accepted that this group is more passive than some.
December 25th, 2012 at 7:46 am
This is so funny!!! This is so funny!!!! The Underwhere sounds alot like atenhor word I’m thinking of This game is SO intense!!!! I get so PUMPED every time I watch atenhor video and think What will happan next?!?! I need this game NOW!!!!!!!!